Canadian flag English
McMaster Textbook of Internal Medicine

Role of COPD phenotypes in treatment

2017-11-28
Jadwiga Wedzicha

Is it likely that in the near future the knowledge on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) phenotypes will help to choose an optimal treatment?

Jadwiga Wedzicha: COPD is a very complicated condition. It is a combination of various disorders, and also the disease changes over life. I think this is something we have not really considered. If you are a younger COPD patient, the disorder looks different – maybe you just have bronchitis – while as you get older, you are more likely to develop respiratory failure.

There is a lot of interest at the moment in different phenotypes: bronchitis, emphysema, high eosinophil count, bronchiectasis, patients who are very breathless, patients who are very hyperinflated. I think in the future we will be tailoring the right treatment to the right patient, but in order to do that we need even more novel therapies.

See also
  • Current treatment of COPD A lecture by Dr Jadwiga Wedzicha, from Imperial College London, UK, delivered at McMaster International Review Course in Internal Medicine in Kraków in May 2017.
  • Outpatients with chronic cough What studies, in addition to chest x-ray and spirometry, should be performed in outpatients presenting with chronic cough? When should such patients be referred to specialist centers?
  • Prevalence of asthma–COPD overlap syndrome Epidemiological studies indicate that patients with asthma–COPD overlap constitute about 1/3 of patients with obstructive airway diseases. However, in daily practice the coexistence of asthma and COPD does not seem to be diagnosed often. What are the possible reasons for this discrepancy?
  • Repeated CT scans in patients with no pulmonary nodules If a patient enters a screening program and the first computed tomography (CT) is negative, how often are CT scans usually repeated in those with no pulmonary nodules? Is it necessary to repeat the CT scan if the first screening was negative?
  • Lung ultrasound vs chest X-ray in diagnostics of lung diseases Does lung ultrasound complement or replace the use of chest X-ray in the diagnostics of patients with lung disease?
  • Asthma–COPD overlap syndrome A lecture by Prof. Paul O’Byrne, from McMaster University, Canada, delivered at McMaster International Review Course in Internal Medicine in Kraków in May 2016.

We would love to hear from you

Comments, mistakes, suggestions?

Send feedback

We use cookies to ensure you get the best browsing experience on our website. Refer to our Cookies Information and Privacy Policy for more details.